


Operation Swan

by Skye_La



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, F/F, Marriage, Swan Queen Week 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-27
Updated: 2015-01-27
Packaged: 2018-03-09 08:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3243521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skye_La/pseuds/Skye_La
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma and Regina find themselves unwillingly betrothed in a modern, media mogul takeover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Operation Swan

“Multi-Media Mogul Marriage!” The headline read. 

“This is disgusting” Emma said, tossing the paper away from her. Snow knocked her boot off the corner of her desk.

“Don’t be so dramatic” she said as Emma’s heel hit the floor and pain shot through her leg.

“Dramatic? This is my life. You’re selling me to them!” Emma slouched in the ornate seat.

“Emma” Snow said, sitting in the other chair. “This is really nothing. It’s a show. You won’t be expected to do anything”. She smoothed her skirt out over her knee. Her hair was cropped into a fashionable cut. Her eyeliner was highlighted by bright blue under her eyes.

“It’s like Romeo and Juliet” she smiled serenely

“Ok well you’ve obviously never read Romeo and Juliet” Emma glared at her. “I can’t believe this is happening” she said getting up from her chair and storming out of the corner office.

She zipped her red leather jack up half way and pulled her hat further down her head. She ignored the building office workers who all thought she was a spoiled brat and tipped her head up at Cole, her bodyguard. He opened the glass doors as she approached and pushed back photographers and reporters.

“Emma! You don’t look happy, what’s wrong?”

“Miss Charming, how are you feeling about the wedding?”

“Hey Emma! Look over here!”

The scene was a mess of noise, shapes, flashes, hands grabbed at her and she held onto Cole. She flipped off as many paparazzi as she could before she was bundled into a black car with blacked out windows.

There were flashes at the windows, reporters screamed at her through the door, hands slammed the windows and pulled at the door handles.

“JUST GO!” Emma shouted at the driver who pulled away. She didn’t care if he thought she was rude. She was terrified of the mob outside her car, of no longer being protected by her parents who seemed to have lost their minds and were now selling her to the MLS Corporation.

She pulled her beanie over her face and tried not to cry.

 

“This is great for us, well done sweetheart!” Cora smiled at her serious daughter.

Regina barely responded. She hadn’t actually done anything, she was just a convenient pawn and she knew it. She didn’t even know what the Charming girl looked like, but she supposed it didn’t matter anyway. Her mother wanted it to happen, so it would.

“You can still go to college, do all the boring things you wanted” Cora said, looking out over her view of the river and the city.

“Like see the world?” Regina asked, sarcastically

“I see the world, from first class! You want to see, pfft” Cora waved her hand dismissively “the third world. You want to be Princess Diana? You’ve got to be a princess first”

Regina uncrossed her legs and went to the door. As she opened it a servant with newspapers on a silver tray entered.

Regina noticed the headlines and her stomach turned over. There was no point in fighting it though. It made too many people happy, even if none of them were her. It was going to happen and there was nothing she could do about it. 

“Oh excellent!” She heard her mother day as she left.

 

“Regina! What are you wearing?”

“Where’s mommy tonight?”

“You look fat in that dress!” 

Regina smiled and waved at The Paps rioting outside the club she entered. A big man opened a door for her and she breathed out as she felt herself hit the wall of sound. Everything inside looked blue in the light. The music was loud. The bass felt like it ran through her, like it numbed her to everything else. She didn’t need to get drunk to feel good, the music did it for her.

Someone took her coat and she headed to the dance floor where she saw Sidney and some other friends.

She forgot about everything. She forgot that she had a week left of her normal life and the hoards of people outside waiting for her to stumble and fall. She just danced.

It was a long time, though it felt like nothing, until she got off the dance floor. She bought water at the bar and watched the scene. She didn’t know that many people here, which made her happy. A guy with a cheeky smile looked like he was going to make his way over to her. She put her water down and left the bar before he could. What was the point anyway?

She weaved her way into the middle of the dance floor.

She jumped around to a bouncy song that came on. She wasn’t looking, her arms were up and she sang along to the lyrics like she wrote them herself.

 

Emma sank another shot before she made her way to the dance floor. She tied her loose blonde curls up in a messy ponytail and danced with her friends.

Someone bashed into her.

“I’m so sorry” A girl in a sparkly black dress said. Emma recognized her immediately and anger flew up in her. She stared back at the woman who had gone back to dancing further away from them.

She felt strange seeing her in person. Emma didn’t think they’d ever actually met before. Regina Mills of MLS corp. Emma thought her driver must have been told to bring her here. Another reminder of how little control she had over her life. Even her ‘free’ time was a carefully orchestrated illusion.

Regina was probably complicit in the whole thing. Emma’s dream of her being equally disgusted as her by the whole arrangement went out of the window. She stared at her.

She swept away from her friends, took Regina by the arms and dragged her off the dance floor.

“Hey, get off me!” she said, shoving Emma away from her. Emma stumbled, being on the verge of drunk while Regina was sober.

“What are you doing here?” Emma asked “Can’t you wait a goddamn week?”

“I have no idea who you are” Regina said, looking for one of her security people in the crowd.

“Yeah right” Emma said. She was sweating. The club was hot and her head started to spin. She stumbled. “I wish you would all fuck off”

Regina glared at the woman in front of her. She was drunk and weird and slightly scary. 

 

 

I just got attacked by a crazy person" Regina said, finding Sidney after escaping Emma.

"Oh your future wife? Yeah she's crazy" he said

Regina's head spun on her shoulders.

"What?!" she demanded

"You really didn't know?" He laughed and finished his drink, though he didn't really look amused.

Regina looked around the room, hoping no one had taken a picture of them. It was pretty taboo in places like this but people still did it.

"We should leave" Regina said

"What? No! This is the last time you'll be out before..." He didn't finish his sentence.

Regina knew what he was thinking. This was the last time she would be out and he still stood a chance, or at least could pretend he did.

"Drink?" He asked

"Water" she replied, doing another sweep of the room.

"No a real drink, I'm not buying you water" he said

"Then I'll buy it myself" she said.

She took the bottle and headed back to the dance floor, not checking if Sidney was following her.

 

"Dad are you wearing make up?" Emma asked at the table the next morning, after pushing food around her plate for 10 minutes.

Snow glared at her. David looked up from his work phone.

"Diane said I was looking pale. Why? I would have thought you were pro man make up" he said

"I just thought you might be doing something vaguely interesting. And it's just called 'make up', dad. Putting 'man' in front of anything does not make it not make up" Emma said.

"Crabby this morning" August said, pouring himself some grapefruit juice.

"I heard you met Regina Mills last night" he said

"Really?" Snow looked distantly excited then seeing the look on Emma's face it turned to concern.

"I don't know what you're complaining about, she's hot. I’d marry her" he said

"You have a girlfriend, god knows how" Emma said

"Want to swap?" He asked taking a sip

"The way you talk about women is disgusting" she spat "we're not accessories"

"And yet look whose being bought and sold" he said

Emma launched herself at her brother. Panic struck his face shortly before Emma's fist.

"Hey!" David wrenched her away.

She kicked and struggled and he held her tighter. She screamed at her brother who was now simultaneously lapping up sympathy from Snow and sneering at Emma behind her back.

Tears of rage filled Emma's eyes. She hated them all. She missed her parents before they were like this, before she was a commodity. She knew August was right. The day she realised he would inherit their media empire and she was just an accessory, things in their family had changed.

It wasn’t helped by their parents’ addiction to a health supplement they had called ‘pixie dust’ when she was still a kid. It was supposed to be calming, and she believed it was. She also believed it was destroying their brains.

She couldn't remember the last time she felt her fathers arms around her. She stopped wriggling and he let her go.

She stomped from the kitchen ignoring warnings about her behaviour, threats and demands.

"What else can you do to me?" Emma shouted back "cut me off? Send me away? Please god do it"

 

"Well that was all very entertaining" Diane said at her bedroom door.

"We should have a room that's just full of stuff you can smash when you're angry" Emma replied to the woman who was a sort of household PA. She ran the show, told them all where to be and when. She worked for them but no one ever really told her ‘no’. Emma liked her sarcastic nature and had a faint idea that she disapproved of Emma's arranged marriage.

"I think that's what your parents cars are for" she replied.

"I emailed you the schedule for today. The car will be here in 30 minutes. Do you think you could shower before you go? I think they'd appreciate it if they didn't have to wash sticky club sweat and smoke off you"

"I think you'll find that's my parents hopes and dreams" she said

Diane smiled.

"Yeah I'll shower" she said.

 

Regina sat in the make up chair being painted, plucked and pruned by people she wished were like Cinna, but they weren't. She felt like she was heading into The Arena with the support of no one.

She breathed deeply, trying not to show outward signs of the anxiety she felt in her chest. She reran her encounter with Emma over and over in her head. She had hated her and she didn't even know her. She was drunk in public. Regina hoped she would at least be sober today.

"Seriously?" She heard a voice at the door say

"Yep, in there" a runner replied.

"Ugh" Emma said making eye contact with Regina in the mirror.

She flung herself down in the chair next to her.

"Fuck" Regina said quietly. "Can you give us five minutes?" She asked the nameless person with the brushes that flirted around her face.

Emma watched them leave. Regina imagined an apology for the night before was too much to expect from the petulant teen sitting next to her.

"I didn't realise who you were last night" Regina strted. Emma stared cynically at her.

"God this is going to be fun" Regina said, rolling her eyes at her.

"Yeah I'm having a fucking ball over here" Emma said "why would you expect this to be fun?"

"Ha" Regina laughed coldly "you're as bad as the rest of them. I don't know why I thought you might be different"

"What?!" Emma sat up "I don't know what you're getting out of this but I'm not here by choice, I'm not like them at all. I hate them"

"I'm not either" Regina said, unsure if she knew who she hated.

"I really didn't know it was you" she added "I don't know anything about you"

"Well" Emma said, faux perking up "my name is Emma Charming, by name only you understand. My parents are Vacuous and Vacant Charming and I wish my brother would fall down a deep, deep hole. The hate asparagus and like vodka. What do you like?"

"Oh you know" Regina replied "long walks at the beach, walking barefoot in the rain"

"Pinacoladas?" Emma asked sarcastically

"Oh my god, how did you know?" Regina replied equally

Emma actually smiled at her and Regina felt the solid lump in her chest shrink a little.

The makeup people appeared and paid much more attention to Emma than Regina who seemed to be finished.

"Oh you have such good skin, I hardly need to put anything on you" one of the said as they applied foundation in amounts that Emma thought should have warranted a cement trowel.

"How do you have such good hair when you take such bad care of it?" Another asked, applying hot irons and steam to destroy any hint of a natural curl. Emma didn't verbally reply to any of them as they wittered away around her.

They were dressed and propped, told what to do and where to stand. They put Emma in a skinny suit with red lipstick and pulled her hair back. They put Regina in a long elegant dress and had her pose in unnatural feeling positions.

"You're doing brilliantly darling" the photographer said. Emma laughed genuinely at Regina's face as he said it and a bulb flashed.

"If posing in the most uncomfortable way you can think of and not breathing is they key to this, maybe I should change careers" she said through her teeth to Emma, who grinned and another series of flashes smashed into them.

"This is awkward" Emma said and Regina tried to suppress a smile.

They changed Emma to a dress and curled her hair. They swapped Regina's dress to a short one that contrasted with Emma's.

"I would actually wear this" Regina said about the dress as thousands of dollars of jewellery were clamped onto her.

Some glasses were pushed onto Emma's face and she stumbled slightly and Regina caught her arm, another bulb flashed.

"God!" Emma exclaimed "why don't you just send us outside, The Paps would have this over in no time”

 

The shoot was over within the hour.

"What's in your schedule next?" Regina asked her as she watched her scrub the make up off her face.

"Lunch I guess" Emma replied

"With RM?" Regina asked looking at hers on her phone.

"I don't know" Emma said, applying her own eyeliner

"That's me" Regina said. Emma lowered her hand after applying the last of her mascara.

"What?" She asked "you mean it's not Renee Mellweger? God damn it"

Regina smiled.

 

Over the next week they had press events coming out of their ears. They spent more time together than not an Emma had to admit, it was comforting to know that Regina didn't want to marry her either.

They sat atop an arrangement of ladders on one photo shoot. They seemed to be taking forever with the lighting and they took the opportunity to talk about real things while they could not be overheard. 

Regina confided in her one day that her mother was holding her hostage with the use of her (now ex) boyfriend Daniel. When the photographer asked them to kiss, Emma saw sadness in her eyes, knowing the last person she kissed was him and she didn’t want that to change. 

Emma pressed her hand, understanding her loneliness, helplessness and isolation. She kissed Regina on the cheek and that’s all the photographer was getting. She whispered to Regina that she promised only to kiss her if “our shit is about to get fucked up”, which Regina thought was sweet. In return Emma told Regina about her parents’ addiction and how it was slowly eroding their personalities.

Emma didn't know what the ceremony was going to be like, what she was wearing, where the reception was, who was coming, anything. She assumed no one told her because she would be less likely to ruin anything if she didn’t know what was coming.

 

"Check out these shots" August threw some contact sheets and prints on the table.

"Oh yes, I know her, she hates her family too" Emma said seeing her own face and going back to her phone.

"No look" he pointed and spread the photos out. Emma saw the shot of her laughing at Regina. It was actually a nice picture of her. She hated all the others because she didn't even look like herself.

"Why do you have these?" Emma asked, seeing the one of Regina catching her falling. She looked elegant and composed surrounded by shadowy hands. Emma looked mad, for a change, but the way her hair flicked in action behind her looked cool. There were outstretched hands over to her side but it was the look between them that she noticed. It was understanding on another level.

"Err because it's my magazine" August’s reply snapped her back to reality.

"No fart breath, its mom and dad's magazine, you're the guy all the employees make fun of" Emma said.

"This is gold" he said ignoring her comments. "You like her"

"Excuse me?" She asked

"Come on, you've cheered up a lot. People say you're nicer to be around" he said, nudging her irritatingly.

"Because there's someone else with me in this hurricane of bullshit, Aug. Not because I like her. Because she seems more sane than the rest of you put together" Emma said

"Or does the world just make sense when you're with her?" He asked in a feathery voice

"Whatever you're on, it's making you even worse than usual" Emma dismissed him and she heard him laugh as he walked away.

She threw the pictures in her bag and went back to her phone.

 

"I have an idea" Regina said at dinner with a bunch of people they didn't know and their parents.

"Powder room?" Emma asked

"Too many people listening" Regina shook her head slightly but not enough to draw attention.

Emma looked around. There were people dancing arm in arm further away from them. Emma nodded that way. A golden ringlet fell from her delicate bun as she did. Regina did think she looked very pretty that night, though she didn’t know if telling her would be weird.

"Ok" she said

Some people stopped them on the way for photos. One was a little boy who said he loved them. They posed for a picture with him in the middle as they kissed either of his cheeks. He looked like he might pass out.

"That was the V-J Day kiss of our generation, I can feel it" Emma said. Regina smiled at her over her shoulder. When they reached the dance floor Emma awkwardly took Regina's hand to dance.

"How do you stand? Am I leading?" Emma asked

"Probably best not to” Regina put her hand on Emma's waist and held up her hand.

"Ok" Emma said "so what's the plan? Does it have a code name?"

"What?" Regina asked. Emma stood on her foot

"Sorry" she said "a code name. Operation...I don’t know. Swan"

"Operation I don't know swan?" Regina repeated

"No just Operation Swan. What is the plan? Some guy is going to cut in for a dance any minute, I can feel it" Emma said impatiently.

"We have the party after the reception, right? And we're staying in some house on the beach, what if we escape before then and disappear?"

"Like run away?" Emma asked as Regina twirled her around and smiled at someone over Emma's shoulder who was taking a picture.

"Yeah" Regina contributed "will you smile? People are supposed to think we're in love"

Emma smiled hideously at Regina and she convulsed with a snort of laughter. Other dancers turned to look at them.

"Sorry" Regina whispered and looked at Emma threateningly. Emma bit her lip.

"So we're going to elope from our own wedding?" Emma asked

"Yeah" Regina winced as Emma stood on her foot again. “Did no one ever teach you to dance? What did your parents teach you?” 

“Useful stuff, you know, archery and sword fighting” Emma said

“I can’t even tell if you’re kidding” Regina said.

They managed to sketch out a rough plan before, as Emma had predicted, someone cut in.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have her back to you in no time” a man in a tux leered at Emma. 

“Oh, she’s not a car buddy” she smiled so charmingly that it took him a moment to realise what she had said. Regina beamed approvingly as the smug look fell from his face. Emma strode off the dance floor and back to their table.

“If I knew you at all I would say you’re up to something” Snow said from the seat next to Emma.

“Yeah? Good job you don’t then, huh?” Emma said, taking her mother’s wine and drinking it. Snow watched her disapprovingly.

“When did you become so hostile?” she asked. Emma put the glass down on the table.

“The same time you started caring about pixie dust more than me” Emma said “I’m going home” she stood up

“What about Regina?” Snow asked 

“Maybe I’ll drop her off at a male strip club” she said “it is her last night of freedom after all”

 

In the car they sat mostly in silence until they got to the Mills Mansion. Emma noticed her rucksack on the floor.

“Oh hey, I wanted to show you these” Emma said and pulled out the prints that August had given her.

“Oh yeah I’ve seen those” she said.

“You have?” she was disappointed

“Yeah, why did you want to show me them?” Regina asked, unclipping her seatbelt

“I don’t know, I thought they were nice” she said

“They are” Regina said, watching Emma looking at the picture. She wondered if her fiancé was developing a crush on her.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow” she said to Emma thinking of the wedding as a flurry of nerves, regret, and a sick feeling she couldn’t place ran through her.

“Yeah” Emma said, as though waking from a dream. She looked up. “Get to the church on time”

 

The pair spent the day in a haze. They weren’t allowed to eat breakfast so their wedding clothes fit. They were shipped around for pre-wedding pictures in places they weren’t getting married. The ceremony was very small, in a registry office and they read the suggested vows. Emma guessed this was so that neither of them could make a scene. After that they had more pictures taken, then they were taken to the reception after their outfits were changed again.

The only reason Emma didn’t pass out was Diane’s strategic placement of jellybeans in the back of her car.

There was a drinks reception where neither of them drank anything, and finally the meal. They sat at a huge round table, populated by their parents, some family friends and some people they didn’t even know.

When their food finally came they could hardly eat any of it because their clothes were so tight and their stomachs so empty.

“I need a drink” Emma said after the dessert she had only eaten a mouthful of. Regina followed her. People grabbed them at every step, physically and trying to engage them in conversation. Regina felt light headed.

“Operation Swan appears to have been sabotaged” Regina said behind her. Sidney, their getaway driver was drunk at the bar. 

“Mother f-“ Emma started, truly at the end of her patience.

“Hey” one of the MLS official wedding reporters said from Emma’s side. “How’s it feel to be happily married?” He asked. Regina saw the flash in Emma’s eyes as she turned to deliver a stinging reply. She couldn’t have know who he was or the danger she was in. There was only one thing for it.

She slid in between the two and answered Emma’s bewildered look with a soft but urgent kiss. People around them oohed and ahhed. When they broke apart Regina wiped the red lipstick from Emma’s lips.

“Why is it called Operation Swan?” Regina asked, leaning into Emma’s ear intentionally giving the impression of whispering sweet nothings, as everyone wanted to see.

“Cause this whole things was like, the ugly duckling and…I don’t know” She blushed

Regina turned to face her and smile. She got it.

“Don’t give up on it just yet” she smiled. Emma didn’t really know what she meant, but she felt relieved and reassured enough to let Regina lead her away for their first dance.


End file.
